But chief executive Matt Comyn has told a Senate inquiry into regional bank closures the company wants to have the highest market share of branches in country Australia.
"There's no question that regional Australia is valuable to us," Mr Comyn told the inquiry at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday.
The inquiry, which is examining the effects of more than 600 closures since 2017, has heard from hundreds of country Australians, who say face-to-face banking is an essential service.
They say banks should not abandon growing regional communities and their significant contribution to the economy across agriculture, mining and tourism.
Many witnesses have given evidence that local bank managers are crucial for successful farming operations, while access to cash supports vulnerable populations and community organisations.
While Commonwealth Bank was committed to ongoing cash transactions, customer behaviour was rapidly changing, Mr Comyn said.
Five years ago, 43 per cent of point-of-sale transactions were cash, compared to 15 per cent now.
Its customers transact $18 billion online every week, an increase of 64 per cent over two years.
The bank spends $1 billion per year to keep its branch network open, $400 million distributing cash and millions supporting postal banking.
"As time goes on, it becomes unsustainable to invest substantial resources keeping expensive services that fewer and fewer customers use."
The Commonwealth Bank was the first to agree to halt closures during the inquiry and has since paused regional shut downs until 2026.
NAB, which did not heed the committee's call to pause regional shut downs during the inquiry, based its closures on declining activity in a branch.
Labor Senator Linda White asked whether NAB executives were misleading customers by using limited sets of statistics to justify closures.
Chief executive Ross McEwan said there appeared to be an assumption NAB was looking for reasons to close branches.
"We are there to serve our customers, but there comes a point where not enough are coming into a branch to actually make that service viable."
Mr McEwan said it would be unwise for the committee to recommend a mandated minimum number of regional branches.
"You need to consider what are you trying to enshrine into Australia because it sounds like you're enshrining a world that will never change, but it is changing dramatically."
Westpac chief executive Peter King denied suggestions the bank was breaching its social licence by closing rural branches while it rakes in enormous profits.
Westpac was offering more digital options, in the same way the federal government has online platforms for Medicare, Centrelink and tax, Mr King said.
"If I look at government services, banking services and most services in the country, they're all going to go digital, so we're going to help people get on and then telecommunications is critical as well."
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